


hometown

by levitate



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Letters, Long Distance Friendship, Los Angeles, M/M, Public Pianos, Trains, YouTube channels, vlogging - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 19:36:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17566691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/levitate/pseuds/levitate
Summary: Every Saturday morning, just as the sun is rising, Tyler grabs his old yellow bike and rides it for two hours to go see Josh.





	hometown

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is inspired by three places:  
> my therapist’s office,  
> the middle school snack bar,  
> and la union station.  
> i hope you enjoy this. :)

Every Saturday morning, just as the sun is rising, Tyler grabs his old yellow bike and rides it for two hours to go see Josh.

Josh is not in love with Tyler, but he knows, and Tyler knows that Josh knows.

 

It starts at a funeral.

Josh’s brother is dead. Jordan was a friend of a friend. Tyler is there. Josh cries, and Tyler is there.

Josh gets his address, and his first letter arrives two days later.

 

Some days, Josh asks Tyler what he’s been up to, and Tyler tells him the same as always: this afternoon he went down to old Jeremy’s general store and got an orange dreamsicle before biking down to the rec center, the one with the out-of-tune public piano, and played it until he was told to leave. Some days, Tyler asks Josh what he’s been up to, and Josh always has a different story about Los Angeles, about the crazy people and fashion he sees every day on his morning walk to the giant Starbucks, about his mom and dad, who work in the film industry and sometimes bring Josh to work with them.

Other days Josh talks to Tyler about his brother.

He figures out pretty quickly that Jordan was a friend of a friend, so he tells Tyler stories. He brings his brother to life. Tyler listens.

 

At first, he asks for his phone number.

Tyler’s eyes widen. “I don’t have a phone.”

Josh says, “Oh.”

Tyler says, “I’ll give you my address, and then we can write letters.”

And they write letters.

 

One day, when Tyler is old enough, he promises Josh that he’ll take the train to Los Angeles and go see him.

Tyler doesn’t have a phone. He doesn’t have much of anything.

So he waits.

 

Jeremy’s is the only general store in Tyler’s town. The only person working there is Jeremy, an old man who listens to classic rock and always gives Tyler a free orange dreamsicle if they get to talking.

Tyler knows Jeremy is lonely, so he tells him everything. He talks about the new song he taught himself on the piano and about the antics his siblings get up to. He talks about Josh.

One day, he asks Jeremy a question. The answer is two hours. Tyler can try two hours. There’s a map in the cupboard in the back next to the car keys and emergency cash. Tyler can try two hours.

He sends a letter to Josh that evening and tells him, two hours. Josh’s reply is just as eager. Tyler starts to plan.

 

On Josh’s sixteenth birthday, a Saturday morning, Tyler grabs his old yellow bike and rides it two hours to go see Josh.

He’s so tired. Los Angeles is in front of him, magnificent and terrifying, and Tyler is tired.

Josh is there.

 

Tyler might be in love with Josh.

 

Three weeks later, Tyler rides his bike again. This time, he is less tired. He starts to recognize the places around him.

The second time Tyler arrives in Los Angeles, he really gets a good look at everything. Los Angeles is in front of him, magnificent and terrifying, but mostly magnificent.

Josh shows him around. Tyler’s mouth is always open. He’s never seen a place filled with rich people like this. Josh accepts it as normalcy. Tyler’s mouth is always, always open.

 

The third time Tyler arrives in Los Angeles, they walk to LA Union Station. There’s a public piano there, and all the keys are in shape and it’s perfectly in tune and Tyler cries. He plays for Josh.

Josh has a phone, a huge, bright one with loads of apps and tons of buttons that Tyler doesn’t know how to use. The third time Tyler arrives in Los Angeles, Josh takes pictures of them, videos of them, records Tyler playing the public piano in LA Union Station.

Tyler asks where the recordings go. Josh shrugs.

 

One day, someone from a huge record label will have to pass by Tyler’s small town, will happen to go to the rec center, will see Tyler playing, and will immediately hire him on the spot. That’s why Tyler needs to be at the rec center until someone tells him to leave. It’s his only way out.

Tyler asks where the recordings go. Josh shrugs.

 

A letter arrives with money in it. Josh says it’s from Tyler’s piano playing. Tyler doesn’t ask how. His family needs money. More of it comes with each letter.

 

The fourth time Tyler arrives in Los Angeles, Josh walks to LA Union Station with him and asks him to play the piano again.

He records Tyler playing and singing an original song, clapping and smiling, but his next letter comes with less money than before. Tyler doesn’t play an original song again. His family needs money.

 

Tyler asks Jeremy why recordings make money. Jeremy shows him YouTube on his old phone with the cracked screen, shows him music videos and cat videos and all sorts of videos. Every time you click on a video, he says, the creator gets money.

Tyler looks up his own name. He finds three videos. They each have around ten thousand views. Tyler wonders why he doesn’t have ten thousand dollars. Jeremy laughs and says it doesn’t really work like that.

Still, Tyler clicks on one of the videos, the one with the least amount of views, the original song. He watches himself sing and play and smile at Josh, and he cries.

 

Jeremy incorporates Tyler’s songs into his store’s music loop. More money comes in with Josh’s letters.

Tyler practices more. He teaches himself more. He writes more.

 

Tyler might be in love with Josh.

 

His family needs money, and Tyler might be in love with Josh, so he starts biking two hours to Los Angeles every Saturday morning and gets coffee with Josh, with his  _ own money _ , and walks to LA Union Station and plays the piano until his wrists ache.

Josh knows Tyler’s family needs money. Josh is so kind. Tyler feels guiltier with each song he plays. He just wants to hang out with Josh. But his family needs money.

The videos don’t all come out at the same time. Josh writes in a letter about logistics, about upload schedules, and says that it will make the most money. Tyler believes him. Slowly, the subject of the letters starts to change from stories to business. Tyler cries at night. He doesn’t dream.

 

Every Saturday, Tyler and Josh record one, two, three videos. Their conversations have changed with the letters.

One day, when Josh asks him if he’s ready to go to the station, Tyler shakes his head violently. He cries.

Los Angeles is in front of him, magnificent and terrifying, but mostly terrifying. Tyler is tired.

Josh is there.

 

Josh is not in love with Tyler, but he knows, and Tyler knows that he knows.

 

Josh keeps apologizing. The upload schedule turns from three a week to one a week, and Josh keeps apologizing.

Their conversations turn back to stories. Josh holds Tyler. He keeps apologizing.

 

Tyler wants to hold Josh. Josh holds Tyler, and Tyler decides that it’s the next best thing. Tyler sees Josh cry for the first time while he is holding Tyler. Josh is afraid for his future. Tyler keeps his mouth shut about how he’s so much luckier than Tyler is. Tyler’s a horrible person. He cries with Josh.

 

Tyler turns eighteen. He buys a used phone. There’s only one number in his contacts list, and it’s Josh. They text every day, but the letters don’t stop.

Tyler gets the YouTube app and logs into the account Josh made for him. He replies to nice comments. He has seventy five thousand subscribers.

 

One day, his family all gathers around the kitchen table and watches cute cat videos on Tyler’s used phone. His mom laughs. His mom has been laughing more ever since Josh uploaded the first piano video. Tyler is in love with Josh.

 

More of their conversations start to be about moving in together. Roommates, Josh says. Josh is trying to get into college. Tyler’s job will pay the rent on their shared apartment. Tyler is all for the idea. They talk about it more. Josh holds Tyler on Saturdays.

They move in together, in a small apartment right in the middle of Los Angeles, and one morning, Tyler kisses Josh.

Josh doesn’t pull away.

 

Tyler smiles more, but he still feels empty. That’s what he tells Josh, after weeks of pent up feelings. Josh holds him, and kisses him, and tells him it’s going to be alright. He tells Tyler about his therapist, about how she’s really nice, and how Josh will pay for it. Tyler cries.

 

The upload schedule turns back to three a week. Tyler sends half of the money he earns to his family, and uses the other half on rent, on clothes, on a present for Josh.

Tyler starts writing again. He posts more original songs. They get less views, as he knows they will, but he finds that it makes him happier, and that his fans— he has  _ fans _ !— still enjoy it.

One hundred thousand subscribers, one hundred fifty, it doesn’t matter, none of it matters. Tyler has Josh.

He starts saving up for a ring.

 

Tyler is twenty one, and he takes Josh back home for Thanksgiving dinner. Tyler’s hometown is nothing special, but Josh acts like it is. Tyler is in love with Josh. At Thanksgiving dinner, his siblings crowd around them and ask them what it’s like living in a huge city. Maddy asks if there are dinosaurs there. Tyler looks over at Josh, who looks happier than he’s ever been, and feels a rush of  _ something _ that he can’t explain.

 

Jeremy has told him before about cells. Skin cells, he said, die and come back every two or three weeks. But brain cells, he explained, do not die. That’s why we remember things. Tyler’s not sure how much of that is true. His skin cells might not remember Josh’s touch, but his brain cells definitely do.

 

After dinner, Tyler takes Josh to the rec center, and he plays for Josh. An original song, Tyler has been working on it for weeks. He thinks it’s not meant for a piano. Something happier, maybe. Like a ukulele. Nevertheless, he sings. He cries. He gets on one knee, and he cries.

He’s okay.

**Author's Note:**

> dedicated to sera because they read this at 5am and told me it wasn’t a crazy idea.  
> @gojngdown on tumblr. :)


End file.
